What do Patxhwork Zombie, Dirk the Mighty and the Dominus have in common?
They're allergic to swirly whirly magic paintings. I hope Dirk isn't featured too heavily in this arc, I liked how his character and Dryad girl had a happy ending.
Whatever the Swirly Thing is, it's pretty well depicted. Oh, it's
chaos. Point to Mookie, that''s quite a good attempt at a visual representation of chaos.
I agree with the Dominus though, he has finally lost his mind. Proof: he touches weird
globey things with people in them.
Hai Iacob!
Yay!
These globes are surveillance cameras, and the one the Dominus is touching is spying on Iacob and his
creation. With all the powers coming from his separate pieces he's a gestalt Patchwork Zombie. Mysterious cloacked personage!
Is it Rachel!?
Nope. It's a lipless necromancer dude called
Rilian. He can send Blight ("In the Blight he courts death as a suitor courts a maiden") through, ummm, magical nothingness into a Vision to start turning the DOminus into cracked pottery glaze.
Okay, I'll buy that super-old lipless necromancers can tell when Seer's are spying on them - it's logical after all. But how can he send the BLight ("In the Blight he courts death as a suitor courts a maiden") through space, magic and dimensions(?) to curse the DOminus? It shouldn't work because back when the Dominus and Karnak were busying gang-mind-raping Szark he said that you could control your actions and influence things in the Mindscape.
The Dominus tries to do this, and promptly starts
disintegrating.
The question still stands on how he's doing this, but its so cool (and the Dominus deserves it) that I don't care.
I like Rilian.
By the way, the dialogue in p.1? So incredibly narmy it ruins the the drama of the moment.
For the record, Attempted Rape/Rape Count: 10. That'd be Dirk, Patchwork Zombie and the Dominus. Now, while the DOminus we actually know to be a Seer, he gets the mind-rape status for having his arm be dissolved off.
In his flailing he spys on Dirk the Mighty in his unconsciousness. The Sylvan Oracle makes a title drop. It makes me want to read
ASoIaF again. That series has fantastic, intricate plots. And the characters suffer consequences from the actions and develop accordingly.
This is meant to be creepy, but it isn't really. Granted it's mildly intimidating, but, especially p. 3, but it's not really effective.
Huh, it was
Coma Vision. Now
that is some scary stuff. This is good writing, the DOminus is all scared and babbling, he's thinking it's only been a minute or so, and Luna tells him it's been a week.
A week of vulnerability and
terror. That comic's good too, it gets across how terrified he was with hardly a word, especially with regards to his Blighted ("In the Blight he courts death as a suitor courts a maiden") arm crumbling away.
Luna's introspection is sweet, for once, and displays character development. Part of being in a loving relationship is supporting each other, here at least, Luna recognises that it's okay for her to need the DOminus and vice versa, because it's what couples do for each other. She finally gets over one of her many emotional stumbling blocks.
This lovely piece of quiet character development
continues, and then Mama Machina and Elanovan enter. Is it wrong that my first thought on p. 4 was 'Elanovan looks good in black'? Because he does. And even that little interiection by Elanovan shows how close the family is. Nothing horribly dramatic or showy, simply a quiet little remark.
How did the Dominus
forget TIM murdered many of his mother's stundets? I'll let it pass because of his Trauma Coma Vision. It also makes sense for Lady Iayden and Lord Dan to be here because they're associated with the Royal Knights of Callan and this is something they'd
definitely want to investigate. Particularly if you consider that these two have ineracted with the Deegans before. Plus, wherever these two are, Siggy can't be far behind!
Yay!
The dialogue in p. 4 is narmy, and the "light" is implied to be the DOminus. As if he's the only saviour in the Dominiverse. I don't like that, but it could be read to mean it's a ray of hope.
Wait. My assumption was incorrect. Rather than a logical coincidence Lady Iayden and Lord Dan are there to
counsel the students. Out of all the priests and priestesses of Luania in the world, they iust had to send out the only one we know. Contrived. It also means the liklihood of Sigggy appearing in this arc has decreased.
Sadness.
The idiotic expression on Elanovan's face is terrible. I also sense exposition from Mama Machina! I say her because it makes sense for the Archmage of the Fifth Circle to talk about something clearly magical in origin. I was
right. And apparently the surveillance cameras are also restraining orders to keep the SoS at bay. This guy called Acibek invented them. They're souls of The Chosen.
Wait.
Those guys from
VoD?
So they were
good guys? Because if they're holding back the SoS that must be a good thing.
Mama Machina
explains and Luna
recaps the explanation from the previous page by
explaining, no I mean summing up
what was already said. The
SoS is a sentient Weapon of Mass Destruction. I love that song.
The Dominus lampshades everything that hasn't been explained, and we get a poor ioke from Spark.
Aha! I was right. Rilian isn't only a necromancer, but
the first of his kind! Gasp! How he discovered necromancy is a mystery. But he's thousands of years old now. He's in pretty good shape all things considered.
Oh, and the Dominus
insults his mother, implies she's allied with evil necromancer, shows in vitriolic hate for his brother and reacts in an vile manner to a valid explanation.
DRAMATIC LIGHT SHIFT!
The Dominus is sufficiently shocked by his outburst. I'm not saying he doesn't have a point, he does. Especially considering he should still be shocked after coming out of a seven day coma (even though he looks amazingly well cared for, no malnourishment, dehydration, loss of muscle mass, very little confusion, and no facial hair or obvious dirt) and
why he woke up are reason enough. Add in Hexelia the necromancer and Iacob, and the effects of Barthis (only three weeks old) he has more than enough reasons to burst out like that.
It's still pretty damn shocking.
I like that.
And the consequences of this cruel outburst are childlike.
Bed with no supper. Wow. Way to
not deal with a great problem - the Dominus should certainly apologise, there should be ramifications, Luna should be appalled! But he's treated like he was eight years old and had a temper tantrum.
. . .
On second thoughts, that's the perfect punishment then. All he'd need to complete the picture would be "I hate you! I'm going to run away and
never come back, and then you'll be
sorry!!" Mama Machina was surprisingly insightful there
and in the next comic.
Even if it does mean we don't get any taut emotional mini-arcs where they confront the DOminus' hatred and try to solve it. If it was someone else, I'd say it was a bit Sue-ish, but all parents are a little Sue-ish when it comes to their children, so she gets a free pass here.
Wot.
The DOminus' hand is talking to him.
Wot.
This is
the druggie stereotypical trip.
The Dominus is on drugs! Heeeeee! That explains so
much. It's probably a combination of uppers and downers; mixed with a few unwise LSD trips in his earlier years which have severe ramification now in the form of trips which the Dominus thinks are 'visions'. These combined with his actual visions make him metally and emotionally unstable.
His arm is called
Klo Tark now. He was a wizard waaaay back when with Acibek.
This is the situation:
the Dominus' arm is going to teach the Dominus how to fight the SoS. Becaue the Dominus is officially
the Messiah.
Sentence fragments.
First panel. Why? What? Not funny. Annoying. Angers me. And a genuinely half-decent ioke! I'm also driven to say that Luna's new dress is quite pretty. And the ioint
magical nerdgasm is fairly cute too. And it's not a bad way of instantly figuring out something that could have provided an interesting subplot.
Except after that moment of cuteness I'm confronted with the Dominus
choking a bitch. Thanks to
TEatE and the myriad sexual kinks involving Lady Amelia, I am now forced to say that the Dominus like auto-erotic asphyxiation. Plus he mayn't have been ioking when he told Gregory he liked it when Luna hurt him (
The Party (or possibly
VoD Part Eight)).
Anywho, Venus de Seer!
Hang on. Wasn't he arrested by the Knights of Errosus? He was an accomplice to murder. He should be in prison! Why is he free?
Plot hole aside, we have a morally ambiguous character with a
complex motive who's out for revenge! Oh, and there's some lady - who appeared out of nowhere apparently? -
who's going to coach Venus in becoming the Big Bad of the arc.
Hmm, mysterious member of the Chosen who's giving her interpretation of the cult's purpose and exploiting Venus'
fully-iustified anger. I like her!
And incoming
awesome villain-with-a-motive.
And this makes me think that the Dominus is a Beacon of Order? Which really doesn't make any sense when you consider his actions, willful disregard for the laws of Callan, or many other things about him.
Because only the Dominus or another Deegan can be the Saviour.
However, Venus de Seer gets to visit unholy, righteous vengeance upon the DOminus, so all is right with the world, and for once, I can conclude an essay on a truly geniune, foreshadowing arc! There's only once comic left before I finish. Mookie can't ruin his cliffhanger in one page.
He.
Did. He did!
Stupid stupid
stupid stupid stupid stupid MOOKIE!!!
It was an honestly threatening and suspenseful conclusion to Part Two of the
SoS; and you had to screw with it by that idiotic ioke with SPARK?!?! Hate.
I have the perfect way to end this essay:
Where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find
Whatever happened to this plot
I wish I understood
It used to be so nice, it used to be so good
So when I read this, reader can't you hear my
SOS
The love you gave me, nothing else can save me
SOS
The drama's gone (it's all gone)
How can I even try to go on
When it's gone (drama's gone)
Though I try how can I carry on
With this crappy comic?